Mutz, White Capture Polk County Meet

Saturday

Oct 29, 2011 at 7:29 PMOct 30, 2011 at 2:19 AM

By B.J. PITZEN

LEDGER CORRESPONDENT

EAGLE LAKE | Mark Mutz and Mallory White both kicked it into high gear for Lakeland Christian to win the 5K Polk County cross-country Championships Saturday morning around the soggy, slow course at Lake Region Senior.

Mutz and White repeated back-to-back weeks of individual titles by taking the top-positions at the Jim Ryun Invitational Oct. 22 and yesterday at counties.

In the boys’ division, Haines City’s Jose Perez came in second with a time of 16:46.01, which was 1:08.81 slower than in the Ryun meet at Tenoroc.

"My legs got heavy after the second mile," Perez said. "This course was way more difficult (than Tenoroc). It had huge puddles and a hill we had to go up twice."

Mutz left Perez to deal with the wet conditions by himself about 1.5 miles into the race and finished with a 16:17.45.

"I had to run through puddles up to my ankles," Mutz said. "Praise God Jose pushed me again today. I want to give God the glory. The reason why I run and why I think God has given me this talent is that I can glorify him through it. Running gives me a platform to help everyone on my team and others to put him first."

Mutz averaged 5:14.7 per mile on the drenched ground leading up to the final stretch around the track.

Lakeland’s Chad Kirkman came in third place behind Perez with a personal best time of 17:02.41.

"All week I’ve been thinking about third-place because I knew Mark and Jose were going to be one and two," Kirkman said. "So it was pretty much a race for third for me."

George Jenkins won the overall boys team event by placing all five counters inside the top 19 individuals finishing with 56 points. The Eagles’ Landon Schneider finished fourth out of 121 runners with a team-best of 17:09.60.

"The team did well," Schneider said. "We all did what we had to do to win. We worked hard in practice and ran the course here on Thursday. We knew where it would be muddy, when to surge, when to make our passes and start sprinting. It (this win) gives us the idea that we can do this and do all things through God."

John Trussell placed sixth, Senior captain Jonathan Schrader took 11th, Daniel Bostron ended up in 16th and Ryan Codd came in 19th for Jenkins.

Eagles’ coach Dan Snell was happy with his boys’ team performance in the rainy conditions and is looking forward to a top performance at the Class 3A, District 7 meet, which begins Thursday at Tenoroc at 5 p.m.

"I’m pleased because we have a special bunch of guys," Snell said. "We do pool workouts and speed workouts. A lot of them went to summer running camp in the mountains and that goes hand in hand with their performance."

McKeel Academy came in third place with 92 points while Winter Haven took fourth with a score of 110 in the boys’ division.

White, the LCS junior who still has knee trouble before and after running, finished with 20:23.26 to win the girls’ division even though her time was 1:29.57 slower than in the Ryun Invitational. Viking teammate Rebecca "Spooky" Eaves came in second-place just 7.62 seconds behind White. "Spooky" got her nickname from her grandmother because Eaves’ birthday is Oct. 27 around Halloween.

"Before the race, Spooks (Eaves) and I decided to run for God’s glory," White, who’s in her sixth-season with the Vikings, said. "We wanted to do our best because this was our last county race running together and we wanted to make the best of it. We wanted our team to win. We are definitely more of a team than last year."

Eaves, a LCS senior who will attend and run for the Division III Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia next fall, wanted to run a good time and was focused on beating Lake Region, who won the County title last season.

"The last two years have been really rough," Eaves said. "We’ve had our ups and downs for sure."

The Vikings won the team race with 36 points as the next four girls placed inside the top 13. LCS finishers Hannah Warren placed 10th, Breanna Skladanek came in 11th, Jessica Fuller placed 12th and Mary Lanzino crossed the finish line in 13th. Vikings’ coach Mike Musick was elated with his girls’ team performance as four seconds separated Warren from Lanzino.

"I was really pleased with it (the wins)," Musick said. "Mallory and Rebecca did well and the next four girls were right there at the finish."

Lake Region came in second-place with 56 points while McKeel Academy took third with a 79 total.

The Class 2A, District 8 meet features local teams such as Frostproof, Lake Placid, Lake Wales, Mulberry and Tenoroc and will start Thursday at 4 p.m. at Tenoroc.

Mutz and White will try to continue their postseason success in the Class 1A, District 9 meet beginning at 11:30 a.m. Friday at Taylor Park in Largo.